Massive reduction of Internet Prices in PNG expected, says Deloitte

THE wholesale price of internet data in Papua New Guinea is expected to be reduced by 80 per cent once the Coral Sea cable is complete by the end of the year, says Deloitte Australia.
Peter Williams, of Deloitte Australia, says the current wholesale price is K650 per megabit per second, which is expected to be reduced to as low as K100 per megabit per second post-2019 with the new cable.
He said the current retail estimate was K250 for five gigabytes (GB), which was expected to reduce to K50.
Williams said while the K100 for one megabit per second was a lot better, it was still high by international standards.
“I think it is worth remembering that throughout the history of the internet, we have seen exponential improvements in speed and capacity together with significant reductions in price,” he said.
“The cost of laying the cable is A$136.6 million (K326 million).
“The World Bank has estimated it will add US$5 billion (K16.9 billion) to GDP and 300,000 jobs by 2040.”
Williams said PNG now had the Kumul domestic cable that connected 15 major cities and towns around PNG with high-speed capacity.
“Together with the Coral Sea cable, which provides 1000 times more capacity coming into the country, we are in a completely different sphere,” he said.
Williams said Papua New Guineans must be prepared for this digital era.
“In my view there are two very big changes,” he said.
“Firstly, internet services will be reliable.
“Reliability will mean that it is possible for businesses to use the cloud to access low-cost but world-class computing infrastructure and software.
“Reliability issues have meant that PNG businesses could not migrate their technology to the cloud due to the risk of outages or slow speeds.”
He said the other big opportunity was a fall in data prices, which would encourage people to use the internet more often and for more things.
“To prepare for the change, PNG needs to ensure people across the public and private sector are digitally-literate and understand how to use the internet for more than just Facebook,” Williams said.
“For example, in education there are literally millions of books, videos, and research studies that will be easily accessible. Teachers need to explore what material is available and relevant to their students.
“They may even incorporate the use of apps into teaching.
“For example, they could use Google Earth and Google Maps to bring their geography lessons to life.” The National / PNGeHow